Yelp Securing Financing : Taking on Google & Yahoo Local

Yelp, the local business review community which made it to the cover of Inc Magazine this month AND turned down a Google acquisition in December, is now receiving a rather large amount of financing from Elevated Partners which is around the $50 million range according to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.

TechCrunch also adds that the valuation is lower than the $550 million that Yelp turned down from Google. Given the investment in Yelp and its employees, and Yelp deciding not to go the way of a Google acquisition, this does position Yelp as a strength moving into the locally and socially powered decade. With its connections not only with consumers, but also business owners, Yelp could start to take more of a hyperlocal coop business consulting role to help businesses pinpoint the main issues that they and others like them face from their negative reviews, and fix them.

All being said, with Yelp’s financing under its wing and the company ready to fly, will we see a Yelp & Yahoo/Microsoft partnership in the works? Yahoo just smartsourced their shopping search to Pricegrabber, perhaps the MicroHoo monster may see it a fitting match to bring in Yelp in some capacity as well. Or is that too much empowerment?